Since January I've been working some intense freelance graphic design / web development work for a cutting edge company. It's been quite challenging, yet very rewarding. I've learned how to use Apple Motion, Adobe After Effects, Dreamweaver(more so), and my favorite, Edge Animate. This has taken all my free time away from my photographic passion. I've finally finished up a major portion, and I've been able to focus on some photographic experiences from the recent past that I can give life to.

This image in particular I've been eagerly waiting for the right moment to dig-in, and with my best BW conversion skills, recount with fervent direction, the awe and inspiration this amazing (albeit quite popular) natural wondrous place had given to me. Yes billions flock to this locale to behold it's enthralling presentation. Does that mean it has any less attraction or importance to me ? Sure, many upon many have photographed this particular location in all wholehearted fascination simply to capture for their own inspirational or documentary pursuits, or whatever they may be. But I'l be Damned if my experience is any less spectacular (or more) than all before me and all after me. It simply astounds me time after time the phenomenal natural world that exists for us to experience first hand. Yeah it's fun to take a picture that looks cool and present it to people, showing a beautiful location, but it falls way short of the first hand experience, that first moment you arrive to these places and all your senses are on fire absorbing the breathtaking awe that you had no idea would come to be. I remember my first day at Yosemite, next to four thousand other people, the sheer joy I experienced looking down at the valley. I hugged every last one of them.

Standing there on the shoreline of the Snake, I saw beautiful tones and contrasts of blues, yellows, everything in between, and smoke / clouds blanketing the mountain range. I knew in conversion, with the right technique, the aspen could go tonally white, the sky with a pseudo red filter would be black (Anselesque), and the oranges, greens, and purples would fall in line filling in the 1/4 and 3/4 tones. Processing this took three black and white conversions hand brushed together. This is composed of two horizontal shots on a D800E, 70-200mm 2.8VRII, initially processed in LR5, polished in Photoshop CC.

It's great to see that you are getting a break to focus on some photography again. And I hope that all those who come on here and poo poo the coolness of shooting an icon can read your words and see the result. It's a shame there are those who try to get others to not shoot the iconic places. I hope this will be an encouragement to others to place their vision on an iconic view point.

Simply gorgeous! This is one of the best B&W conversions that I've yet to see.

After shooting 2 years of B&W converted IR, I can say that this would easily pass as an IR shot. It has the IR look & feel; the dark sky, the light trees and the general contrasty appearance. I'm surprised to see so many comments on this image, not because it's not fantastic, but because many folks here seem to have some sort of stigma against IR This image definitely has an IR feel... I'm curious what the reaction would have been if you posted this as an IR shot.

I've been refining my post-processing techniques for a couple years, in order to give my IR shots the B&W mood that I'm after. There is a look that IR provides that you simply can't get with a regular B&W conversion (at least that's what I thought until now). I'm and engineer, not an artist. So this artistic process has taken longer and more difficult that I imagined. But I've learned a lot here on FM. It's shots like this that teach me a lot and also show me how far I have yet to go.